Jessica Waldorf, MPA, CEM
Acting Deputy Secretary for Environment
Office of Governor Kathy C. Hochul
Jessica Waldorf is currently serving as Acting Deputy Secretary for Environment in the Office of Governor Kathy Hochul where she oversees operations for the environmental agencies and authorities in the State of New York, including administrative, budget, legislative, program, and policy priorities. She works across this interagency portfolio to develop and implement policy and legislative initiatives to advance the Governor’s ambitious energy and environmental goals, with a focus on implementation of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. She has
over thirteen years of experience working on complex clean energy projects and environmental initiatives across New York State. Focus areas for this work include affordable housing and benefits for low-to- moderate income (LMI) individuals, development of innovative financing models, environmental and energy permitting and regulation, climate finance strategy, power generation, large-scale renewable technologies, clean energy workforce development, clean transportation, and building decarbonization and electrification. Ms. Waldorf has been with the Governor’s office since June of 2020 and previously held roles as Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy and Senior Advisor for Energy.
Prior to joining the Governor’s office, she served as a Lead Key Account Executive within the Clean Energy Solutions department in the New York Power Authority’s (NYPA’s) Albany office. In this role, Mrs. Waldorf served a trusted advisor to customers seeking assistance from NYPA to help meet their energy conservation and distributed energy generation needs in the Capital District, Mohawk Valley and North Country regions. Specific to local governments, Jessica has over seven years of experience helping them with the planning and implementation of clean energy projects, such as LED street lighting conversions, building energy retrofits, and large-scale renewable energy projects.
Prior to joining NYPA, Jessica worked at NYSERDA for ten years in various roles and most recently served as a Project Manager on the Communities and Local Government team. In addition to working on NYSERDA’s Clean Energy Communities program, she managed the development and implementation of Phase II of the Cleaner Greener Communities Program and the implementation of Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing in New York State. Mrs. Waldorf also managed the development of a new statewide Community Energy Engagement program for locally based organizations to drive energy efficiency and renewable energy deployment to residential, multifamily, and small business customers, with a focus especially on low-to moderate income customers.
Mrs. Waldorf received her Bachelor of Arts from the University at Albany with a concentration in Political Science and a minor in Spanish. She also holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration with a focus on Environmental and Education Policy from the University at Albany.